The Amber Blade
by The Original Navar
Summary: Ethan has appeared in the future of camp Half Blood, so much has changed that even the war is over. What war? The Civil War. Ethan has been asleep for one hundred and forty-eight years.  During Heros of olympus between The lost hero and Son of Neptune. Reviews appreciated and wanted, please review.
1. Awakening

The Amber Blade

~1~

It was only the third day of the war against the bloody Romans, and I had only just gotten back from the mortal's war, I hadn't even changed, but things went wrong right from the start.

I sprinted through the forest into a clearing, they were everywhere. The cohort quickly broke through 9's defensive traps and our own line. Derek and a few others from 9 fled from the roman cohort.

"Ethan!" Corey was running up the hill to where I was standing. His armor was dented and some parts of his blonde hair were missing or burning, but that was fairly normal, considering the events of today.

"Get these plans to Joey; he's at the nearest bunker. It is extremely important!"

"It's what I do." I said as I took the parchment. We both stood there a moment while the cohort marched through the clearing. "I hope Mary's all right." I sighed.

"She's probably in better shape than your cabin is." He gave me a weak smile and jogged back down the hill, rallying his cabin.

I stuffed the parchment into my message bag and ran into the woods, dodging another volley of arrows from the cohort. The forest was oddly quiet for what was going on inside of it; I could actually hear the sounds of the forest; birds, squirrels, and other assorted rodents and mammals. A horn sounded in the distance, the Legion had destroyed another bunker, probably 2. I ran through the stream that cut the forest in two, the cold water encouraged me to keep moving. The air then charged of ozone.

An explosion launched my into a tree at least 100 yards from the river, ripping my armor to shreds. I lifted myself using the tree as a brace, looking around the small clearing; I then drew my sword, Sfentami, a gift from Maple and stood ready to do battle with what was probably that daughter of Jupiter!

"It's not my place to show mercy, but there does not need to be bloodshed for me to get the plans for your newest weapon." A stern voice said. "Give them to me and I will leave you be." She stepped out of the trees and into the small clearing around the stream. She wore gold armor and her exposed forearm showed the legion tattoos. She had been fighting 7 years; I stood little to no chance. Still I stood and raised my sword.

"I'll fight you to the death if it must be that way." She raised his pilum and advanced faster than I had anticipated, she must have been using the wind. Sfentami's amber/celestial bronze blade clashed with the roman's golden pilum. She backed away stabbing with the pilum while I tried to advance on her.

She smiled, "You're very simple Greek; this is easier than breathing." I stepped into her path and stabbed at her torso. My stab did nothing to her but put a nice sized gash in her armor. She floated away as if in water. "The wind protects me, Greek. You'll never defeat me; you know that I'm right! Just hand over your plans!" She shouted and flew at me, arm outstretched, pilum crackling with lightning.

"Let's ground you then." For a moment time seemed to pause as I called on the dryads, hiding in their trees. _Please, lend me your trees! I need to make her land! _ I felt the dryads respond, giving me control. I felt my legs tingle and time seemed to speed back up.

"Heeeya!" The roman sped above the forest floor. My whole body tensed and I raised my blade, calling on the trees. Not even 10 feet away the Roman was pulled to the ground, losing her grip on the pilum. She swore and drew a gladius, slashing the hard bark of the roots. "Now you need the nymphs to help you? Weak I call you, weak!" I approached her and called on the roots to pull her into the ground.

"You will die, son of Ceres!"

"Probably, but not by your hands."

She flailed around as the roots pulled him down; she let out one final cry of revenge, and then disappeared into the ground. "Good riddance." I began to turn around when I was tackled from behind.

"You beat a roman in a one on one fight to the death! And you're alive!"

I smiled, "What, did you think I was going to lie down and die for her?"

"Of course not! Well, she was a daughter of Zeus. Jupiter! I meant Jupiter!"

I turned around and held Maple's hands, her amber colored eyes looking at me for wounds, which were none by the way. "I hope Sfentami was helpful, it took a long time for that Hephaestus kid to make it." She squeezed my hand, "Do you want to use my tree to get to bunker 9?"

"I actually need to get to 6; the Demeter bunker is better hidden so they should be fine."

"Well ok, but you'll have to walk a bit from the closest Maple."

I leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Thanks for the concern."

She smiled, "I could never let you die on me."

I stepped toward her tree when a fireball hit the stream, sending steam into the air. "Maple!"

"_Over here!_" I ran her and found myself at the base of her tree. "_Ready?"_

"Yes, of course!" The clearing exploded as another fireball hit near the tree.

"_Hurry!" _

I took two steps back and another explosion rocked the world, sending me flying into the tree. I was sure both my legs were gone. I heard Maple scream in my mind as I flew into her tree, falling-out into a large oak.

It was dark.

I rolled onto my back gasping for air. I summed up all the pain in my body, zeroing it down to my lungs, which were oddly oxygen deprived, but after what I had just gone through, I was all right, except for the fact that I still had my legs, which was nice, but disturbing. I added that to my list of things to figure out.

I sat up summing up my surroundings. I have run through every square inch of this forest, including The Ant Hill, and I didn't recognize where I was. There was a large oak in front of me what disturbed me even more was the fact that there were no sounds of battle or even a skirmish. There always was, especially with the Romans.

I stood up and listened to the forest. It was oddly quiet but I felt an odd happiness from the trees around me. I hadn't a clue as to why, but I was too busy to find out why. I jogged through the forest until I came to the stream. It was much deeper here, but I was thirsty. I knelt down to drink when I was tackled from behind.

Me and whoever it was rolled along the sand near the water. The face was covered in a Greek helmet but considering that the warrior had tackled me, I was ready to assume that he was a roman.

I and the young Roman tumbled in the sand for another 30 seconds before we separated and rolled to our feet. The young man drew a short sword and picked up his shield from the ground. I drew Sfentami and stood in my runner's style.

"What's with your stance? Don't know how to hold a sword?" He mocked me and raised his shield. "Well, let me show you!" He advanced toward me with a grin under his helmet. A rather cocky set of statements, if I do say so myself.

"It's your head, flee and you can keep it." His eyes lit up in shock at my comment. "My head! Why would you _kill me?"_ I stepped forward and he stepped back. "Ok you win, take me back to your base and let me wait there." He dropped both his sword and his shield and put his hands up in defeat.

I stood there, my brain practically melting into manure. "A Roman _surrendering?_ You must be quite a new Roman or something."

He looked up at me, "Roman? What are you talking about? The only Roman here is Jason and, well, he opted out of capture the flag to be the referee. And, so you know, he would never back from a fight."

My brain then turned into manure. One Roman? How on earth? Referee? Capture the flag? Jason?

I fell to my knees. The boy ran over to me, taking off his helmet. "Whoa man, you all right?" he ran over to me and put a hand on my shoulder, "Do you want to just come with me to team red?" he grinned, "We have cookies, oh and I'm Leo. A son of Hephaestus!"

I managed to get up and sheath my blade. He did the same and helped me walk into the woods. And about a hundred feet away there was a small clearing with some chairs and a large red flag. 3 other kids, around 12 or 15, were walking around the perimeter.

One of the kids noticed us and, with a grin, walked over. "Who do we have here?" He noticed that I was being helped by Leo. "Leo, what happened? Do we need to get him to Chiron?"

Chiron's name sent a shock down my spine; he would know what the hell was happening. "Please do." He looked at Leo. "Yeah, he needs the help Harvey." He got over to a small conch shell and played two sharp quick notes before a long third one; the medic's call.

Leo helped me sit down in a chair. "By the way I never did catch your name, here's some nectar." He handed me a flask and I took a swig, not a large one though, too much would have killed me. "Ethan." I said. He looked at my eyes for what I think was for concussion or something. "Your new here, aren't you? I've been here for a couple months and I have never seen you before now. I mean I'm not the most observant guy and all, but considering our little predicament." he continued on like this for several minutes, while his friend came over to check me for more wounds.

Looking at Leo I could tell one thing. He was absent minded and could not sit still. These were traits that could coexist well in a battle. Why is he defending? I tucked the thought into an envelope and stashed it in my mind, promising myself to think this over after this whole thing ended.

I heard commotion in the woods behind me but could not bring myself to look at it, too much effort for one who had so little. I could hear the beats of hooves on the ground.

"So that's how I would up in this whole predicament here at camp," Leo looked behind me. "Chiron!" I could practically hear the old horseman smile in spite of my lack of seeing him. "I came as soon as I could; the Ares cabin is once again, biting off more than they can chew. And then some. So what happened here?"

Chiron walked into my view, his face looking into his medical pouch. Leo stood up. "Well, sir, I found Ethan down near the stream we faced off and he collapsed. I think he's new because he doesn't have any armor. I'm not very good at determining this kind of stuff." Chiron smiled, face still down, apparently he found what he was looking for. "Well let's take a look." He had looked up for a moment blinked and wore a mask that said it all. He was straining to hide his confusion.

"How in Zeus's name could you be here?" He dropped the vial he was holding into his medical pouch and trotted up to me. "What is the last thing you remember?" But it wasn't a question. Leo looked as confused as Chiron. "What do you mean? He's on the other team but the-"Chiron cut him off. "Leo I'm going to have to ask you to leave me with Ethan for a few moments." Leo put his helmet on and walked into the woods, oddly silent.

"Ethan, how in Zeus's name are you still alive?" I looked into his eyes, they were very concerned. I replied, "Chiron, where are the Romans, who is Jason, why are they playing a _game?"_ He leaned down. "Listen Ethan we need to talk somewhere more private. Climb onto my back, we are heading to the Big house."

We rode through the woods in silence; riding past other half-bloods playing capture the flag. When we broke through the tree line I was hit with the familiar feeling of camp but… it was different. The cabins were still there, the rock wall was still terrifying, and the forge was there as well. But there was a large blue house near the entry hill and a smaller grey-brick building near the cabins. Things had changed, and I was beginning to see in what direction they had changed. Forward.

We rode up to the large blue house and, after I dismounted, Chiron walked inside the front door, I followed. The interior was decorated in vines and grapes. There was a lion's head on the wall. A large box with multiple, unnatural colors decorating it. There was a picture of sorts inside and it made odd beeping noises. He "sat" into a wheelchair in the corner of the room and motioned for me to sit as well. I sat on a large, comfortable couch.

Chiron started. "Ethan, what are you thinking right now, based on what you see here? I can truly only imagine." I glanced around the room. "I think that I've been gone a while. Chiron, what happened?" He shifted in the chair, his face strained to hold something. "Ethan, you have been gone for quite some time now, we had presumed you dead but with the constant battles, we had no time to search for you," He sighed. "What was the last thing you remember before," he motions around. "This?"

"I had just fought with a daughter of Jupiter," Chiron winced. "I was able to defeat her. With the help of the dryads, I pulled her into the ground. Maple came up behind me and we talked before she offered to transport me to the Hephaestus bunker, but before I could, 3 explosions rocked the small clearing I was in, that Roman must have been a distraction! Anyway, the explosion knocked me into Maple's tree and, I'm not sure but I think I had lost my legs. I fell out of another maple and I felt fine, except for a loss of breath." He leaned back and laced his fingers. I continued. "I walked around till I found the stream."

He leaned forward and took a breath. "Do you have any idea of what happened between the time you were thrown into Maple and when you fell out of another tree?" I took a shaky breath. "I've been stuck in that tree for a long time, haven't I?" He nodded. "I am truly sorry there is no way to say this simply, or softly, but you were sleeping for one hundred and sixty seven years." He gave me a sad look that was completely sympathetic.

I thought. "Did we win? Was it ended through peace? The mortal's war?"

He looked off into the distance, into the dark night just outside the windows. "It was ended when the gods split us, the Greeks, and the Romans apart, forced everyone to forget the war and those who died in it. Only the nymphs, I, the gods themselves and the other immortal entities remembered."

"What happened to Maple?"

He sighed and I could see him rewinding to the old memory, although he did so with less haste than I would have. "I remember she came into my war tent the night you disappeared and told me what had happened. To tell the truth, you were one of hundreds that day. That was close to the end of it, most fell in the bunkers. Only one we know of survived. The rest unreachable." He motioned out to the woods. "Bunker nine. We recently discovered it, well Leo did. Inside we discovered plans for a flying warship, never finished. We have started construction, but have been having… difficulties."

I leaned forward. "The Argo II?" He looked at me. "I did not know they named it that. Either way we have named it that as well."

"What sort of difficulties?"

"The plans were incomplete."

We both turned to the entryway where a girl with blonde hair stood. Her grey eyes told me that she was a daughter of Athena or she had glass eyes, probably the first. "When we started construction we realized that the ship needed a specific algorithmic-magic engine type to fly it, or else it would fall apart. The plans for the engine were lost during the war, which I presume, you were in." she watched me intently, as if daring me to lie to her. "I am from the war, but I am no son of Athena or Hephaestus, I won't be able to fix it for you, I'll make it worse if anything."

She sighed and sat down in one of the chairs near Chiron. "Then what good are you? Unless you know who the engine maker," She reached into a bag and pulled out a silver rectangle with a delta on it, she opened it and a soft light bathed her face. She stared intently at the inside of the box before looking up, "The engine designer, Corey Viness, gave the designs to, then," she paused looking at me before continuing. "Engaged the Romans, gaining us a victory in the process. He survived the whole war until he took an arrow in his head. His record is in Daedalus' computer; apparently he had a copy, but only a hard copy which was destroyed when he died." She looked between me and Chiron, looking for a reaction from both of us; apparently Chiron had more secrets during peace than war.

"I did know Corey, he was a close friend of mine, but I don't remember anything from the day I got stuck in Maple's tree, except for those few minutes of engagement with the son of Jupiter." I looked over to her. "I do hope I can be o some help for getting the Romans."

She looked at Chiron. "Does he know we are going for peace? Not war?"

Chiron sighed. "If you just found out you have missed one hundred and forty four years, you would hope to learn things slowly, wouldn't you?" He shook his head. "Let's walk him into this slowly, without your laptop of any mention of Romans or ANYTHING else." He gave her a look that said that this was the smarter move between the alternative.

He looked back at me. "Well, though we are going for peaceful a purpose, that is not entirely correct, I will fill you in over the course of tomorrow. Until then you will be staying in the big house, it would be for the best." I stared at him. "Peace! Chiron! They don't know the meaning of the word! However you get that thing to fly, they will get you in the back!" I pleaded.

Chiron sighed, obviously miffed at Annabeth for popping my bubble. But I was miffed, and I knew that peace would never work. He looked to Annabeth. "Annabeth, tomorrow will you _slowly_ bring Ethan up to speed on the state of affairs during the time he was gone?" She nodded and walked out of the room, she was annoyed as well, and that was easy to tell.

Chiron turned to me. "I will be leading the campfire tonight, if you would like to." I cut him off. "Chiron, we were at war with the Romans long enough to equal the amount of deaths in the mortal's war! And you want peace! A lot must have changed from the time that I got stuck and now. And no, I need time to think this over, so where am I staying." He rubbed his forehead. "Upstairs, second door on the right. Please try to get some sleep. I or Annabeth will try to help you make sense of it tomorrow." I went upstairs and, exhausted, fell on the extremely soft bed. I fell asleep before my head touched the pillow.


	2. The New Future

~2~

The morning woke me with a ground shaking tremor. The whole room shook with such force that my bed was jumping away from the wall.

I jumped up off of the now uncomfortable bed, reaching for my boots, which were running around the room in a frenzy. I quickly fetched them from their jog and slid them on while attempting to keep my balance. I ran down the stairs and into the now crazy room that was the kitchen.

Everything in the room was flying around in a crazy fashion of jumping and soaring through the air. I had to duck and weave through the peas and grapes that flew across the room. I make it to the far door without getting too much food on me. Only some nectar can be noticed.

I sprinted out the front door into the field. The damage was minimal and the only structural failure was in the large rock wall which was overflowing with red hot magma.

There are a lot of campers outside their cabins at this point, stumbling about and cursing. The earthquake finished off; shaking a few more times before the tremor stoped, leaving me on the deck looking stupid. A couple Dryads cry as some of their trees die.

I feel a surge of grief as I remember Maple. I had just forgotten her! I Jump when Chiron starts to talk.

"This is the third quake this week," He said grimly "Gaea has been up to her tricks since Percy disappeared." He looked at me. "At noon Annabeth will show you around and fill you in on, well history. Then she will explain." He rose up and out of his wheeled chair, stretching his legs. "And so that you can ease your mind, you might want to go see Maple. We haven't told her that you're back yet." He smiles and gallops down to the cabins, calling them to breakfast I assume.

I walked down to the cabins. There were more than I remembered. About 6 more cabins had been built along with the originals. The Demeter cabin has changed too. Plants grew in every place possible and mainly on the roof. I decide that looking inside before noon is probably a bad idea, with me being from a different time period and all.

I jogged out of the near ring of cabins and followed the border of the forest. The trees don't acknowledge me, as usual, so I jumped through the low bushes on my right and entered the woods.

It's full of life again. The trees are sad, but happier than those that I knew and animals ran about. Monsters roamed the thicker parts of the forest, as I remember. It was like before the war.

I step into a clearing well hidden by the trees on either side. It was wider than I remember it but it was still practically the same. Except for a juniper tree nearby, the only tree in the clearing was a maple, Maple's maple. I approach her tree and my heart is running in my chest.

"Maple?" I say tentatively. "Are you th-" I get cut off as a scream cuts through the clearing.

"Ethan! How are you here! You were exploded!" A weight slams into me, Maples face is right up against mine as I fall backwards, and pin wheeling my arms, and I smile.

"I know, I'm just as surprised as you are. Though not as exuberant!" I manage to get out before she hugs the breath out of me. I return the hug and squeeze hard. Glad that something's still the same.

"What happened? I saw both your legs and you flew into me! I looked at every maple in the forest and-" Her eyes tear up green, and we hold hands. "You were gone so long, I thought you had died." At this she cries, which is unlike her, she's usually excited, talking faster than Lucy at times. I kiss her forehead and she sniffs. "You're going to need to explanation now." I sigh. "When I flew into you I did manifest through a tree nearby, I had both my legs and only a shortage of breath. I found my way to the stream and took a drink. Leo found me there. We wrestled a bit before eventually he took me to where his flag was and Chiron came. He took me to the big house last night and told me how long I have been away." I kiss her again. "I'm so sorry."

We stand, hugging, until a voice clears its throat. "At least you have one thing that hasn't changed."

We both look up to see Annabeth standing at the edge of the trees, looking fairly awkward. She was standing next to a satyr, a rather bewildered one with a bright orange shirt on. Just like the other campers. "Hi Grover, Annabeth." Maple squeezes my hand. "If you're looking for Juniper, she volunteered to instruct the track. You know, help out the new campers." Grover nodded, looking kind of dejected. "Well I guessed she wanted to, when does she get out?"

Grover starts to say more but Annabeth jabbed him in the ribs. She looks to me. "Ethan, meet us at the forge in half an hour. We will meet you there." With that she pulls Grover out of the clearing, scolding him with her gaze.

"Are they a couple?" I asked Maple. "Heavens no," She says "Annabeth's boyfriend is Percy. He is missing though. Grover is just one of her closer friends." She leans on me. "Well you better get going, I don't have a watch and neither do you!" She pulls me out of the clearing, and before I knew it, we had jumped through her tree and out the edge of the forest, near the forge.

"I've been practicing, so if I need to do that with anyone else, they won't. You know…" she puts on a pouting face and then giggles. "No more stepping back in order to move though!" We stop running when we get to the forge. Familiar sounds come from inside. "I'll see you when your done. Talk to Chiron when your done."

I wait for about 10 minutes before Annabeth Shows up. "She has a couple scrolls, some books, and what Chiron called a laptop. She is obviously hiding it from me, or Chiron who is at the archery range just on the other side of the forge. "Let's go inside, I'll show you history. Well at least read it to you, there is a lot." She smiles sympathetically. "I'll also show you my laptop, once we get to it."

Inside the forge we find an unused worktable and sit down. "Just one question before we begin. Why are we in the forge?" She sighs and takes out a large, shiny book, placing it with a couple other books. "Nobody here will bother us, well they are children of Hephaestus, and this place has probably changed the least in comparison to places like the big house or the Athena cabin. Plus they are all mostly working on the Argo II, There are still problems." She opens a scroll and begins basically.

In blah; blah happened and blah won and blah was cured. That's all it was basically, except it was my future, their history and was extremely sad. Like the mortal attack on Jews, or the death bomb that was dropped of an island near China, twice. Or the two world wars, each worse than the last. The inventions were terrible as well. The mortals finally figured out guns. The death bomb, or nuclear bomb as Annabeth calls it, was advanced until there was a stalemate between America and Russia, a weird combination, until Russia fell out. Flying machines for mortals were invented, advanced until they could break the sound barrier, and finally to my surprise. America made it to the moon, the gods must have had fun making it so far away and so high up. Then there was computers, television, x-ray, lasers, fire guns, rocket guns, a mortal Greek fire or grenade, cars, the light bulb for the mortals, electricity, the west coast, and the mortal civil war was one by the north.

Al this and then there are the horrible things; hunger is still rampant, famine, disease, fast food, pollution, obesity, the cold war, ww1 and II, and of course, the nuke. All these things, and then she tells me of the Greek world. The oracle was cursed my Hades, there was a pact that the big 3 would have no kids, Pan was found, then lost, and more recently, Kronos rising back up, her friend, now boyfriend, turning out to be a son of Poseidon, breaking the pact however so Zeus, his daughter was turned into the tree on entry hill, now called half-blood hill. Percy fought with Luke, a son of Hermes multiple times until Kronos took control of his body and could not be harmed. He took on the curse of Achilles and with the son of Hades, Nico, fled the underworld to fight off Kronos's invasion of Manhattan, New York city. They won of course but then a bigger threat arose.

"Gaea is awakening again." She closes the last scroll and leans on her arms on the table. "We believe that Hera switched Percy and Jason to make us unite to defend Olympus, in Greece this time. This is only a belief, but is highly likely. We do know that since Jason lost his memories when he came here, Percy will have lost his memory as well." She pulls a white sheet of clean paper and hands it to me. "This is the Argo II, redone to fly better, fight better, and carry seven people."

I look at the blueprints. It's not really my area but it does look more up to date. "And you said that you didn't have the engine schematics?" she nodded looking at my face, studying it intently. "You're thinking about the connection between me and my convenient memory loss of the period of three days before I fought the Roman and how Jason still hasn't regained his memories of the location of his camp." She looks up at me. "You're smarter than you look, but I am also thinking of how I'm going to kill Hera If your one more person that we need to crack. No offence." I look at her laptop. "You know, Daedalus visited us every once in a while. Looked over our war with an eye that says he could make it bloodier, but is afraid to intervene. "

She got up. "He was a troubled man, and an even more troubled automaton." She shook her head "But that's no excuse for not helping either of us." She picks up her materials and walks out of the forge. "Don't forget to check out the Demeter cabin, they're eager to meet you!" I sit there for a few minutes, practically petrified, as it all sinks in.

Over one hundred years have passed. The two wars I fought, mortal and here, finished without me. I, stuck in time, unable to do anything, am alive do to… that's the blank spot.

How did I get stuck? Was it Maple's idea, to patch me up then let me go? Or was it, as Annabeth suggested, a plot by Hera? Or maybe it was an accident. Either way, I'm here and I need to know why.

First things first, I have to go to the Demeter cabin. Supposedly they were eager to meet me, Annabeth told me that the abilities I have were lost over time, no more tree blessings. I walked out the door and unbuttoned my blue cotton jacket, it was near fall and this wasn't exactly needed, though I kept it on, it was one of the only things I still had.

I half walked half jogged over to the cabin area. Most of the cabins were doing activities, from swordplay to the arts, if they still called it that anyway. I walked into the Demeter cabin and looked around as anyone would. There were bunks lining the walls, the roof was glass with some vines growing on it, there was a large pool of water in the center of the room filled with water plants and a few small trees on tome of the dry spots. In the back were some large bins filled with what I guess were gardening tools. There was a rack of weapons on the wall, older than I was because they were there when I was here.

I stepped up to one of the racks of weapons, putting my hand on the blade of the war axe, when I heard shuffling behind me. I turned around to see a black haired girl in the doorway. "You must be Ethan, nice to meet you." She stepped out of the doorway and crossed over to me. She was a great deal shorter than I was and looked to be about 15, give or take a year. "I'm Marinda, nice to meet a son of Demeter with the full blessing of Demeter, you could really help us." I scratch my head. "Well, I'm not sure what I'll be helping you with, they already know that I know nothing about the Argo. What else can I do?"

She sighed. "Well I was going to ask you to show us how to tree travel, is it difficult? Does it hurt? Will we get stuck in time like you did?" I sat down on a random bench in the room. "It is difficult, it shouldn't hurt, probably not, and will I be staying here?" She nods. "Chiron thinks it would be best if you stayed in this cabin. I'll get you a bunk when the rest of the cabin leaves." She took a clipboard off the wall. "Since most of us will be leaving in a few days, Christmas break, you can have one of the bunks then, unless you're already going back into the mortal world." She looked down at the papers on the clipboard. "You can have a bed roll until then. Ok?" she went to a corner and picked up a rolled up mat and a bag, both probably meant for sleeping. She tossed them to a space in the floor near a window.

"I had amnesia for a month when I was 12." She looked at my sympathetically. "I was rendered unconscious when one of the Hephaestus kid's inventions blew up and I was hit by a large wheel." She sat down on a bunk across from me. "I still don't remember anything from before that day. I only know what people tell me. I lost at least fifty dollars from the Stoll brothers." She smiled. "Well you might get yours back; after all it was only a day." She got up and started role call with some of the other campers that had entered the cabin

I sat there until Marinda called for the cabin to line up for dinner. She had given me one of the extra camp shirts that were used when they had new campers. I put it on under my jacket and got up to the pavilion in time for the Hephaestus cabin to receive the laurels for winning capture the flag.

I sat down at the Demeter table, next to a small boy apparently named Dew. I noticed there was no one at the Poseidon table, but one boy was at the Zeus table.

The boy was tall, with blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He had a blade that glinted gold in the torchlight. He looked around 16, maybe 17, with a tattoo on his left arm, just above his wrist. An eagle followed by SPQR with 12 lines behind it. The Roman, Jason.

Dew touched my hand, bringing my attention to the shattered cup in my hand. I set down the pieces and covered my hand with a napkin and some string. Marinda gave me an odd look but stayed silent. We got up and gave our offerings to the gods and sat back down. We were half way through our meal when Chiron walked up to where all the campers could see him, and then stamped his hooves on the tile.

"Campers, last night's games were in fact one of the best examples of your abilities and teamwork. And as some of you might know, we have a new camper here that arrived during the game." He gestured for me to stand. "Ethan Core, son of Demeter." There was some polite clapping from the tables and Chiron continued. "If you wish to know the circumstances of which he returned, that is for you to ask and him to tell." He nodded to me and went on to continue the announcement.

We finished eating and went on to the campfire, when we got there; we all sat down in the stands, in order of cabin. That put me 2 rows behind Jason. Chiron glanced at me and went on to start the campfire, which was huge and bright red. The magic fire hadn't changed. We sang songs, some I did know and many I did not know, but I sang none the less. Jason even got up and helped the Apollo kids perform a skit. He wasn't half bad but he kept giving me nervous glances, like he wanted to tell me something, but didn't know how to say it.

After the skit finished, Chiron had a few announcements. "First, Leo! An update on the Argo II, if you would."

Leo hopped up and jumped down the rows of seats, then stood in front of the fire. "The inner hull is almost finished, and Annabeth has almost completed the designs for making it useable for 7 demigods, instead of 20. We still have no clue as to how the engine works. We have our best motorist working on it. In all, we should have time to make the deadline." He looked up at me long enough for a couple others to follow his gaze, immediately causing me to stare at the closest ones until they looked away. "Well, when it's finished, you guys will be the first ones to know." He smiled and hopped up the steps back to his seat.

Chiron stepped back up. "Secondly, the Ares cabin has issued a cabin challenge to the Hephaestus cabin for the laurels." This brought forth an ugly cheer from their group. Chiron cleared his throat. "Lastly, the Hunters will be arriving in the morning." He looked right at me when he said this. Everyone groaned, apparently they disliked them. "Now, we will be having another capture the flag game in two days, maybe then you can all settle your disputes over the laurels." He started to canter out of the firelight when I heard a gasp. Apparently others gasped as well.

There was a green mist seeping out of a girl's mouth, near the front of the theatre. She was being helped up into a chair facing the audience when, I believe, we all heard the Oracle's voice speak.

_Forgotten boy of crippled country, head down the ancient path,_

_Head to the place which was home to the fourth Roman camp._

_Let the soul of lightning fall from the titan's wrath,_

_Recreate the ancient light, cast by one old lamp._

With that the girl collapsed, I assumed this was Rachel, the Oracle. Everyone was silent; I guess they expected some sort of warning, a shout or something.

Chiron scanned the rows for any signs; maybe someone there had something to do with this prophecy. His eyes settled on me, then Jason, then to Annabeth, who stood next to him. They had a quick and silent conversation then Chiron spoke. "A new prophecy has been revealed! Would the councilors join me in the big house after getting your cabins back to their cabins that is all!" Almost immediately, uproar sounded from the back of the theatre.

Everyone turned to look up at the newcomers to this campfire.

"Well, looks like we arrived right on time." A voice said from the front of the group. "Chiron, I would lie to request my attendance to this meeting." Chiron nodded. "Well girls? Head down to the Artimis cabin, I will meet you there when this meeting is finished."

The girls filed out of the theatre with the campers. The councilors of each cabin moved down to the bottom seat and Chiron started the meeting.

I left the theatre before they started, when we reached the cabin, everyone started talking about the prophecy. "Soul of lightning? IT could be either one of them!" "Forgotten boy? Could it be Ethan? Crippled country could mean the union and the confederate, right?" I rolled out the mat and used the bag as a blanket.

Dew came up to me and laid out a mat under a small oak tree. He sat on the bag and took out a pad of paper and a pencil, and started writing. _Was the prophecy about you? _ I looked at him. "You can't talk?" He nodded. "Well, I'm not sure if the prophecy was about me…" I looked up at everyone else. Most of the conversations had stopped, and their eyes and ears were turned to me.

I spoke to them, directly. "Look, I don't know what that prophecy means, or who it's about. All I know is that it sounds like it, and if I am the "forgotten boy" in the prophecy, then I won't hesitate to go." They stayed silent, looking at me. Then there was a knock at the door. Everyone looked at Marinda in the doorway. "Ethan, they want you at the theatre." I nodded and stood up, Dew put a piece of paper in my hand. I put it in my pocket, promising myself to read the note later.

When I arrived at the theatre, Thalia, the huntress, and Chiron were talking to Annabeth, when I reached the bottom, she walked off in a huff. Thalia went to follow, but a daughter of Aphrodite stopped her. "This has been hard on her, you might not know that but she is still heartbroken." Thalia took a breath and went back to her seat. Marinda sat in her spot and I stood there, feeling completely out of place.

Chiron broke the silence. "As you might have guessed we believe that you are the boy mentioned in the prophecy, do you accept this?" I nod without thinking. "Sit down over there next to Rachael, we will explain what we believe the prophecy means." I sat down.

Thalia started. "_Forgotten boy of crippled country_ obviously refers to you, being from the civil war." Rachael spoke. "The line about an ancient path still bothers us, America is fairly new, there are no _ancient _paths, unless they came with the gods." She looked to Chiron, who started talking. "As far as we know, there are no ancient paths ready for mortal or demigod use. They are all over in Greece and Italy, only important locations got moved."

He looked at the Ares girl, Clarisse, who started talking. "As for the location of the Roman's fourth camp, Chiron can't tell us due to his oath. Unless, you know, you tell us." I looked at Chiron, who had a look of guilt in his eyes. I spoke. "I know where it is, it's at the Niagara Falls. At the time of the revolution it was one of the furthest west areas you could get to, and it was where their camp was. From what we know, they were going to move to Louisiana, but they never did."

Clarisse nodded. "You're not as useless as Percy." Rachael chimed in. "Getting to Niagara Falls should be easy! It's even in New York!" She looked excited. I felt sorry about bursting her bubble.

"The only problem is that the camp was _under _the river to the falls. _Underground._" Everyone had the same look on their face, whatever we were supposed to do there would not work, and Gaea would destroy us before we even got inside.

Thalia got up and paced nervously. "You know, the last line might be a hint. _Recreate the ancient light, cast by one small lamp_? Maybe this lamp could protect us in some way." It was a long shot, but it was the only shot we had at hope.

A voice, shaky, came from behind us. "Paul Revere's lamp. The one he made his midnight ride with and one of the two up in the Old North Church. It was a gift from his father, Hermes, to keep him safe." She stepped down the steps and sat in her spot. "Whenever it is lit, the holder and those who are bathed in its light are safe from danger." She looked right at me. "It could keep you safe from Gaea while underground. But the other lamp is ordinary, if you were to use that." She shook her head. "It would obviously be of no help."

I took this chance to ask about the third line. "_Let the soul of lightning fall from the titan's wrath._ What does that mean? Is it telling me I need a child of Zeus?" I look at Thalia, trying hard not to look at Jason. To my horror, she shook her head. She explained. "I only came here because one of my hunter's has family who just came here. I can't stay." She looked to Chiron who sighed. "Ethan, you may have difficulties agreeing to this, but Jason is a child of lightning. You can only take him and one other of course." I looked up at Jason who looked about as uncomfortable as I did, except his reason was because of _my_ discomfort. I stood up and walked over to where he was standing, he stood up too, and we stood eye to eye.

They expected me to say no, to deny this child of Rome and beg for Thalia to come. But I had seen many Romans fight with such vigor that having one could be extremely beneficial. So I said something against what they were all ready to make me see reason about it. Like a _child_. So I spoke. "Do you have any recommendations for the third camper?" He looked almost as surprised as Chiron, who, without fully listening, had started to protest what they thought my decision would be.

He shook his head. "I don't think anyone here could risk _not_ being here. Unless you want, um…" he trailed off and looked at Chiron. Wait a minute, I thought to myself. They were hiding something from me! Chiron, like he always seemed to do, read my thoughts and looked to Thalia. She looked half as nervous as everyone here did. They **all **knew. She stood up and put her arm around my shoulder. "Listen, it would be best if I-" I cut her off and brushed her arm off. "Just tell me, what you all know that I don't!" I was practically steaming at this point.

She took a deep breath, as if she had gone through something like this not too long ago. "The family one of my hunter's has come to see, is you." She stared right into my eyes, pulling all the disbelief and sorrow out of them. "It's Mary."

Faster than anyone else, I jumped out of the reach of the Stoll brothers, who were about to hold me back, and raced up the steps and into the field. Racing to my sister.


	3. Reuniting

~3~

I reached the cabin before even Chiron had his hoof on the top step of the theatre. Sitting inside were a group of girls, huddled around a brown haired girl whose eyes were streaming, almost as much as mine were.

One of the girls was watching for me, she looked over to one of the oldest looking girls in the huddled group, who whispered something to Mary. She looked up and smiled, from joy and sadness, and ran to meet me in the middle of the cabin. We both hugged and collapsed to our knees. We were both always big criers, when we did cry.

We sat on our knees, huddled up together in the center of the cabin, oblivious to the people who walked inside the cabin. WE looked into each other's eyes and laughed at what we saw in them. We saw that neither of us had changed from the day I arrived at camp for the war. I felt my face go slack with realization. My memory! I had it back! Well mostly.

A wide smile took up my face. We could always read each other's faces and she understood immediately. We both separated from each other and stood, holding hands. A cough brought us back to the real world around us.

Thalia walked up to Mary and smiled to her. "Mary, Ethan has been in a sort of suspended animation for the past one hundred and sixty seven years. He awoke from it only two days ago." Mary smiled. "Then I guess I will get him caught up on things, like planes!" she smiled at me, thankfully, Chiron was able to be the bad guy. "We actually already brought him up to speed on the world. If we had known you were coming sooner, we would have waited." She pursed her lips and looked at me. "Quick what's a car?" I think then answered. "An automobile."

She smiled and stepped over to her bed, pulling out her bag. "I guess you'll want this then." She pulled out a small disk, no bigger than a dollar coin, and as shiny as the day I got stuck. "My shield. Where did you…" Then it hit me, it must have fallen out of my bag in the explosion, over one hundred years ago.

I took it and press the button in the center. It spiraled out until I held a spherical shield about the size of a wagon wheel, though lighter. I looked at it. The shield looked _exactly_ the same from that day. The same day that Corey supposedly won a battle. That I missed.

I looked back at her. "Maple showed you where it happened, didn't she?"

"Yes, I found this next to one of your feet."

I swallowed. "My feet? But I still have both!" to prove my point I point at my feet, still in their boots. "How could you have seen my feet?"

She stepped up to me and retook my hand. "Me and Maple thought that you were blown to bits, and that some parts of you went through to the other tree, like your head." She took a breath. "I now think that, well when your head is removed from your body, it's still alive for about fifteen seconds, so she might have healed you, _then_, automatically, she put you down at a tree near where your destination was. But that's just from what the girls have told me."

She squeezed my hand. She really did think that I had been dead! Well if I were in her place, I would think the same if I were her. "I'm mostly surprised you still have those boots, we found them behind her tree, and the rest of your cloths went through."

One of the girls, Heather, spoke up. "From what we heard, it's kind of like you were in cryogenic stasis, like in Star Trek or something." I gave her a blank stare, I understood nothing in that sentence, but the other girls nodded.

"But she can't go, she still needs to be with us, and she's under orders from Artimis." Thalia said behind me.

"Then why did Jason start to suggest her."

"He felt that if he did that he did that he would gain some of your trust, which was rather smart." Annabeth breathed, still miffed obviously. Well he did score some points, but who could I take? The whole idea of choosing someone I didn't know was, well rather annoying, kind of special.

"I will go." The campers in the room all turned to the far window. Standing there was a tall girl, with cloud colored hair, all curly with a few strands of hair sticking out. There were clumps of dirt sticking out of her hair and pretty much everywhere in her cloths. "Well, I hate that stupid Ceres kid, and I cried out for his death, but if he truly needs someone who is called "The soul of lightning" then here I am. Anima Fulminis."

"Well, Ethan it looks like you have a volunteer. But cried for his death, what do you mean?" Annabeth prodded her. But Anima just looked at her with disdain. "He killed me; well at least he thought he did. Even I was fooled, the stupid trees in the clearing let me go when they found out he was alive; they said they actually forgot about me and did not know why he wanted to keep me alive, underground. So." She hopped through the open window; she was still in her golden armor, and had a purple undershirt on as well. She walked up to me and stuck her nose in my face. "Why did you spare me? We were fighting to the death!"

I sighed and leaned back. "I didn't mean to spare you. You were supposed to die instantly and become dirt. The dryads probably just took matters into their own hands after that. Sorry, I guess." She sneered and sat down in one of the stools. Everyone was watching us, especially Chiron, who was watching with caution. No one had expected this.

"Well, at least there's _one_ roman soldier here; tell me, what are you doing here? Under cover or something are or you a defector?" Jason drew his sword and stepped forward, rage filling his face. "_Ego__sum__proditor__.__Ego__sum__Jason__gratia__,__praetor__duodecimi__legio__,__interfectorem__Troiamare__monstrum__et__filius__Iuppiter__Te__audent__me__proditor__!__" _ She nodded and pushed him back with her foot. "Well _I _amthe Praetor, daughter of Zeus, destroyer of the Greek death machine. This doesn't seem to have stopped them much."

He stepped back but kept his sword drawn. "You are a disgr-" he stopped, mid-sentence. I was about to say something but a voice behind me forced me to stop. "Well this wasn't supposed to happen, but I suppose the prophecy did name her specifically." I turned around and a woman, dressed in a glittering golden shawl and dress was Hera. I remembered Annabeth's suggestion that she made me sleep in the tree.

"Oh don't be so surprised, Annabeth is a smart girl, although a little pest. I won't force you into helping me, but I do want you to save this camp." She nodded to Anima who unfroze and stood up. "And you." Anima turned and her eyes widened. She bowed. "Juno. I am honored at your being here." Hera transformed into a woman wearing a black shawl and a widow's face thing, I never knew what to call it. "Anima, although even I thought that you were dead, you must help this Greek camp. Earn their trust, and learn to give them yours. This is a new world from when you were at war, one more will come to help, from this time of course."

She looked between the two of us. "I hope neither of you will fail in this quest." I finally let out my anger in one word. "_What_"

"Defeat Lapetus at his home in the old Roman camp, he is the last titan that wishes for the fall of Olympus. To do so he has joined with Gaea to destroy western civilization and the Olympians." She switched back to her golden dress. "This time, don't try to kill each other." She snapped her fingers and disappeared. We looked at each other in realization. She had to forgive me for killing her. "Sorry for the lightning bolts, I summoned three after being sucked into the ground." She said this slowly, so I returned the apology. "Sorry about, you know, trapping you underground." I held out my hand, she took it.

"We will settle it after her wishes are fulfilled."

"Deal."

"-aceful Roman." Everyone blinked, and turned their eyes to us. "Hera!" We all looked at Annabeth, who had just shouted. "She talked to both of you didn't she?"

"We have to go after Lapetus, he's at Niagara Falls."

"Juno told us. Jason, if you are a loyal Roman, you understand how this must be." He sheathed his sword and stepped forward. Still angry, but more controlled. "She did the same thing to me about a month ago." She scratched her head and shrugged. "So you get it, well Hera said one more was chosen by her, so when that person gets here we will be on our way." I glanced at my sister. She was biting her lit, trying to hide the annoyance on her face. And maybe a little rage.

"We should really continue this in the morning. Animus, you can stay at the big house if you'd like. Or you can sleep in the Zeus cabin."

"I'll stay with a Roman. Not a Greek house."

Chiron had us leave the cabin and leave the hunters alone. I hugged Mary one more time and left. Chiron sent us back to our cabins to rest, mainly me because of my upcoming prophecy.

Before I entered my cabin I noticed the forge. The lights were on and it sounded like the Ares cabin was in there by the noise. I looked around to make sure no one was looking, and then ran across the field to the forge. I could hear the vibrating before I got there. Then suddenly the roof of the forge exploded and a large abnormally shaped thing flew straight up into the air and blew up as well. Another uproar came from inside.

"One fraction to the left and the frame would have held!" "Two fractions to the right and the orbital alignment boosters wouldn't have been so powerful!" "The separate control module should have been disconnected during the test fight!" "If the fluctuations of the lower stabilizer hadn't been hampered with, this wouldn't have happened!" I only understood none of these arguments.

I distinctively heard Leo. "Look guys, we still have 2 weeks till the deadline, the prototype can wait one more day. You all need a break and a good night's rest." This started another round of arguments against this, but Leo quieted them. "We all need to rest! I bet the guy that made this engine stayed up the whole war only to be killed from being tired! Just go sleep!" I hid in the shadows as they filed out the door, back to their cabin. Leo stayed back to cover the fires and clean up what he could. So I stepped inside.

"You know, he did stay up the first few days when he knew they were coming. But he figured it out through dumb luck and because he was creating the first flying machine, thus started with a blank slate." He jumped and dropped the piece of roof he was holding.

"You know, you shouldn't tell an inventor how to work, but thanks anyway." He turned around and picked up the piece of metal he was carrying and added it to a scrap pile in the corner. "Did you happen to know if, well, if this Corey guy was a fire user?"

I nodded. "He used it to make Sfentami, my sword, magic. He merged dryad amber and celestial bronze to make her." I took out the amber crystal from my pocket, summoning my blade from the crystal.

His eyes widened at the sight of something unnatural, yet as natural as it was. He held out his hand tentatively. "Can I see it?" I tossed the sword, which he caught and studied intently. "The blade is indeed dryad amber and Celestial Bronze but, the main 'ingredient' is the amber, which must be a monster busting element!" He smiled like a little kid. "This is an amazing discovery! Think about how many weapons we can make with this!" He places it on a workbench. "Where did you get the amber for it?" He shone a light through it. "My girlfriend had it made for me, with the help of the best weapons maker in camp; Derek York." He stopped moving the light.

"The amber is magic, from what I can tell. And the inscription is rather sweet. 'If you're ever in trouble remember the heart of doorways. Love you, Maple'. Rather sweet really. But what's the heart of doorways?"

I laughed; the memory was an older one. "The heart of doorways was a secret cove in the woods. It was nestled in a pond; you had to swim down into it." I pick up Sfentami and, after turning it back into an amber crystal, slipped into my pocket. "Inside was an old door. I opened it a lot, hoping something would appear behind it. We decided to call the place the heart of doorways."

He smiled. "It is places like that that makes you wonder, how did no one else find this? Who put a door down there?" He shrugged. "But, I suppose well never know what path might have been behind it."

"Where was this door?" We both spin around to the open doorway. Standing there is Annabeth, who seems to like sneaking up on people. I start to speak, but Leo stops me. "It's kind of rude to sneak up on people so often. And you have been sneaking up on Ethan a lot these past two days."

She nodded. "I get it, but suppose something like this comes along. An old door under a pond? Or an _ancient_ door under the canoe Lake?" I knitted my eyebrows. "The woods were bigger during the war. Is it possible that the cove is under the Lake?" she shrugged. "There is only one way to find out."

She looked at Leo. "Can you make three water masks for us? We'll check it out tomorrow." With that she stepped out the door.

I turned to Leo, who was holding three helmets out over a table. He caught my glance. "No need to make something someone else already did. We should head back to our cabins though. Nice talking to you." He ushered me out the door and walked back to his cabin and I to mine.

I fell asleep instantly, the dreams coming almost at once.

I stood in a forest, heavily wooded. Around me were the ruins of a house, a mansion maybe. In the center was a teenage boy, around 16, standing in front of a fire pit. He wore an orange tee shirt, jeans, and a Celestial Bronze blade, one that I recognized as Chiron's, in his hand. He had black, short hair and deep green eyes. Between him and the fire pit was a she-wolf. I recognized it as Lupa. The boy's mouth twitched and his body made strange motions toward the wolf; the wolf seemed to respond by flicking its tail and moving its face. This was a Roman ceremony, but the boy was a Greek.

I walked around the pair, trying to figure out their gestures. Nothing came to me. The wolf's eyes glanced to me. She could tell I was there but could not stop it. She seemed terrified by what she was actually doing, mixing this Greek with this Roman ritual. Almost as fast as she glanced at me, the boy spun around and swung his sword. He snarled at the empty air behind him, She continued to stare at me, eventually speaking. "Go, this is not for you to see." I felt my consciousness move, until I was high above a city.

The view wasn't breathtaking, but it was a view. The buildings around looked rather old- fashioned, like I had stepped into a painting. The air seemed cold and fresh. Cutting across the outside of this small city was a small river; I could see lights moving on the water. There was a light, very small but moved fast on the path around the river.

A door creaked behind me, and a shuffling sound followed. "Here they come." I turned around in time to see a larger man climb out of a floor hatch. He lifted up two lanterns and hung them in front of the window in front of mine. He lit a torch. "Two. Paul said two." He moved his torch into a lantern, which glowed brightly. He moved to another lamp and lit it.

This one lit up, bright and strong. The air around the light hummed. The man put out the torch and watched as the river came to life with the sound of gunfire, aimed at the shore of the village. He placed his hands on the side of the window, and sighed. "They saw it, I said they would. But no, he had orders from Chiron." He sighed again, lifting up the humming lantern.

He heard the groan as the front door of this building opened. I did too. The sound was ominous, like a church door opening. He opened the floor hatch and slid down the ladder. My dream followed. "Gods forbid they should find me." He hit the bottom and walked down a narrow corridor; he came to a door and stepped out into the graveyard of the church. There was a shout off to his left as a British redcoat leaned out the window, aiming his rifle. "I pray this thing works as well as Revere said it should! It would be a shame for a mortal to kill me."

The redcoat fired and the shot missed, though barely. "Hah! Just my luck, I owe him twelve bills now!" the man in the window started to reload, but was pulled back from the window. I heard screaming then gunfire. The silence afterword was worse though. The man drew a black sword, raised it and chanted. The graveyard shifted and boney hands reached into the sky. They shuffled to where the obvious son of Hades was chanting. The wall of the church exploded. A tall man stepped out from the broken wall. "Son of Hades, you bring back questionable life to these mastiffs. No matter, I need neither you nor Paul. Just that lamp." It swung a large mace through the dust and fog, sending the whole line of undead into the nearby river.

"Now, allow me to end yours!" He swung downward at the Son of Hades, who raised his sword. My dream moved once more.

This time to a girl, around 15, running on a dirt road, I could see the ocean nearby. She had dark red hair and grey eyes. A daughter of Athena if I ever saw one.

I noticed what she was running from and almost lost hope then. It was Laelaps, the monster that the Romans found and re-trained to hunt down our best tacticians. The Children of Athena.


	4. Butting In

~4~

It was a war horn that woke me this time. I flew off the mat, getting my boots on in a matter of seconds, grabbing my shield, and heading for the hill. My cabin had barely stirred from their sleep when I reached the top of the hill where Clarisse, Annabeth and Chiron were standing. "I saw it from one of the Pegasus when I was on patrol, it's a monster all right." Clarisse looked flustered, obviously.

Annabeth looked to Clarisse. "You said it was huge, right? Was it chasing someone?" She nodded. "I couldn't do anything or the monster would hunt me. It's Laelaps, the hunter." Annabeth nodded. "This seals that person's fate."

I looked between the three and decided to tell them, I could trust them of course. "The person being chased is a child of Athena. She is supposed to go on my quest, I saw it in a dream." Clarisse shook her head. "Laelaps can't lose a hunt, it always catches it's prey. Only the Teumessian fox, who cannot be caught, can flee it."

Chiron looked down the hill to the road. I followed his gave to where the two had just rounded the road. She was barley ahead of him, a few more minutes and she would be gone. "I killed Laelaps once during the war when the Romans used him to hunt our tactician. If he dies, he stops hunting his prey, even when he returns to life." Clarisse smiled a wicked grin. "You flank him on the left, I will try to distract him." She drew a sword and charged down the hill. "For Ares!"

Chiron cantered nervously.

Annabeth drew a knife. "The tacticians were specifically children of Athena, right?" I nodded. "Then she is probably one of my sisters, I WILL save her." She placed a hat on her head and disappeared. Chiron turned to me. "If she is meant to go on your quest, then the fates are cruel, she has two perpetual fates. She could die in either." I summoned Sfentami and turned to Laelaps.

"I'll just have to choose the longest one." I ran down the hill, using the grass to push me up into the air.

The Dog was nearly to her when I got there, in only a few seconds too. Laelaps had ignored Clarisse, who had stabbed it with her spear of lightning. I saw Annabeth, I think, trying to trip up the monster, to no avail. The girl was seconds away from the monsters teeth, when it faltered, it's eyes darting to me.

I guess it remembered me.

I landed and rolled to my feet; it turned away from the Athena girl and jumped at me. I raised Sfentami in front of me, praying to the dryads in the nearby trees for support. Roots jumped out of the ground in front of me, slamming into the monster. Clarisse dove into Laelaps, retrieved her spear and continued shocking it. Not really doing anything really. Annabeth was helping the girl up the hill to where Chiron was standing, readying his medical pouch.

Laelaps roared and broke through the wall of roots, I sidestepped and stabbed into the side of the monster, it didn't really react besides another roar. I ducked and weaved through it's claws and jumps; eventually landing next to Clarisse. "How come it can't hit you?" We both rolled out of the monster's lunge, standing up on the other side. "I thought it could catch anything?"

Laelaps roared, probably at the fact that we were pretty much ignoring it, having a conversation. "I have a fox's foot; it protects me mostly, only if I try though!" I pushed her out of the way of Laelaps' jump, getting hit myself. I could barely get out of the way of each of its swings and bites. Sfentami kept its head away from me for the most part. But I was faltering.

Every time it swiped, I could feel it's claws brush my skin. Clarisse was kept busy trying to get an opening, it was somehow attacking her too, I don't know how. It was over when Sfentami was thrown from my hands, it reared it's head for a fatal strike, when a whistle was heard from the hill. A loud, shrill whistle which caused both me and Laelaps to look up at the hill, where Anima was standing, holding a golden whistle to her lips.

She whistled again and Laelaps, to my surprise, backed off of me and sat down. She walked down the hill calmly to Laelaps. "You still obey your master, good boy." Laelaps slowly shrunk from a hulking monster to about the size of a German Shepard. Anima bent down to the ground and patted her knee. "Come here, boy. Come see Annie." Laelaps ran up to her and rubbed up to her leg affectionately. She scratched him behind his ears. "Good boy. Don't go chasing anyone for a good long while now ok?" Laelaps seemed to consider this for a moment, looking up to the hill to Annabeth and the redhead. Then it turned around, after nuzzling Anima, and ran off down the road.

"You owe me thrice now." She turned around and picked up my sword. She held it for a moment, and then tossed to me. I hastily got up and grabbed it. "Thank you. I really don't know what to say." She ignored me and walked up to where Annabeth and Chiron were standing with the girl.

"No really, I'm fine. Just shaken" She was sitting on the grass near the pine tree, her bag was on the ground to her right. Her hair was a mess of curls, twigs, and leaves as if she spent the night in a tree. "You at least need some rest, you ran from Laelaps for hours. Come, I'll carry you down to the big house for a drink and some food." Chiron helped her up to her feet, then his back. She looked at Clarisse. "Thank you for helping me, You too." She fished looking at me then rode with Chiron to the big house.

"I told you to flank the thing, not charge it!" Clarisse put her face a few inches from mine, holding eye contact. I narrowed my eyes, nose up. "Your plan wasn't very well coordinated. I saw a better option. and took it." She scowled.

"I may not be the smartest hero here, but you know that isn't true!" She pulled her head away from mine and crossed her arms. "I do suppose you're right though, I didn't even follow my own part." With that she sheathed her sword and walked back down to her cabin mates, who all looked ready to run up to me at any moment and rip my face apart.

I dismissed my blade, placing the amber crystal into my pocket. Annabeth turned to me. "So you do have a rather strange fighting style, Leo told me you did. Not that I didn't believe him of course." She brushed some hair out of her eyes. "Well, Leo should be up now, lets get him then take a swim in the lake." She turned and motioned for me to follow her down the hill. I turned to Anima. "Well thank you for saving me. Lets try not to make that a habit though." She glanced at me then walked down the hill, to the big house. "Well, you seem to have a plan with Annabeth. I will get acquainted with the girl."

I walked to the forge, where Leo and Annabeth stood. Leo was wearing some sort of long underwear with designs of flowers on it, and Annabeth wore a form fitting outfit, black and rubber looking. Leo looked up, a confused look on his face. "Your going to swim with your clothes on?" He said. I looked down at what I was wearing; an orange shirt, my human war jacket, jeans, and my boots.

Annabeth tossed me a bundle of rubber material. "You can wear that over your clothes, minus the jacket and boots of course." I sighed and pulled my jacket off. "You know, when I was here people just went in with what we were wearing." Annabeth put my jacket and boots into a locker.

"This isn't the eighties, just put on your wetsuit and a helmet." I pulled the wetsuit up and looked at Leo. "Where is your wetsuit?" He grinned. "I don't need a wetsuit, I got my trunks. Now lets get down to the water before the naiads go back to sleep!" he grabbed a helmet and jogged out toward the lake.

"Leo is only trying to be, well, Leo." Annabeth shook her head, smiling. "Let's get in the water." She ran out of the forge, squeaking, and I followed, also squeaking. Leo jumped off the pier, pulling his arms and legs in. "Canon-ball!" He shouted before he sunk into the water, me and Annabeth followed, but not as extravagantly. I pulled the helmet over my head and took in a breath. The water was like a fresh, cool breeze but, slightly chilling, like there was ice in the air, or in this case, water.

Annabeth slipped her helmet on and gave a thumb up and shrugged. She thought I would know where I was going, I suppose. I pointed into deeper water and swam down. Over to our right a couple of naiads were pushing Leo's helmet on him, he was suffocating. He breathed heavily after his helmet was on and came over to us. He gave a thumb up to Annabeth who rolled her eyes.

I led the way down the bottom of the lake, it wasn't very exciting, and there wasn't a lot in there. The most exciting thing was a half melted canoe; don't exactly know why it was melted though.

Soon we reached the very center, or close to it. Annabeth and Leo looked around, swimming out a little then back. They exchanged glances and nodded. Annabeth had hit a switch on my helmet, causing a light to shine from it, but that was a while before this. I signaled for them to wait a moment and swam over to a large rocky ledge near us. A small pile of rocks littered around its base and a large boulder sat in the center.

I motioned to them to come over to where I was. When they got to me I motioned to the rock, Leo and Annabeth propped themselves at its base and began to push, I joined them and pushed as hard as I could.

No such luck.

The boulder was easily as heavy as Olympus, well at least that's how it felt. Annabeth and Leo quickly grew tired and so did I. The stupid rock would not be moved! I swam up to it and punched it. All that did was hurt my hand nothing more. Leo swam up behind me and put a hand on my shoulder, shaking his head. He pointed up to the surface and started swimming up. I looked at Annabeth who also sighed and swam up to the surface as well.

I slumped up to the base of the boulder and looked at the lakebed. Well, there goes the only lead as to where to go first. "Well, look who we have here." I shot up, my hand rushing to my pocket, which was sadly covered by the wetsuit. In front of me, standing on the lakebed, was a middle-aged man. He wore swim trunks like Leo had been wearing, but the flowers on these were weaving around in their pattern. His hair was a dark black, his sea green eyes were surrounded by wrinkles, as if he smiled a lot. I bowed deeply, down to my knee.

"Lord Poseidon." At least I tried to say that, but my voice was drowned out by the water. Poseidon seemed to snicker at my attempt, but kindly. He looked at me, smirking. "Ethan, you almost appear to be immortal, with the fact that you don't seem to have changed at all. Let's let you be able to respond, shall we?" He waved his hand and the water around us pulled away. I quickly pulled off my helmet. "Lord Poseidon. It truly is an honor."

He waved his hand. "Stop with the whole _lord_ thing, I only came because of my promise, if you remember correctly of course." I stood up and thought, but not too long. I smirked. "The promise I made to save your son. Yes I remember, you promised me, in return for your newborn son's protection, your help in one matter that was within your power." He nodded. "Well yes, not exactly but for the most part, yes, that was the deal." He flicked his hand and a scroll appeared in his hand.

He unrolled it and summoned a pen. He looked at me. "This is the same document you and I both signed; thankfully we stopped using this format years ago." He unrolled it. "If you sign it now, I will help you with this little predicament, since my son, who was quite a hero, survived to die of old age." Poseidon unrolled the parchment and looked back up at me.

I crossed my arms. "Why did you decide to come to me now? You seem to be trying to get rid of the contract." He sighed. "Zeus has decided to close mount Olympus to the mortal world. However, he allowed me to come to you in order to close the deal, which takes precedence to his current action. He might not allow me to get out to you again." He held out the pen and scroll. So, why don't we close this deal?"

I nodded and took them. The scroll was rather old and fragile so I slowly unrolled it. At the bottom of the parchment was my signature, well the signature I used to use. When I signed this, I had only been in camp for a week, and on my first quest Poseidon offered me this deal, which I accepted, only because it was in my other prophesy. He had had a child in the southern states and that child was, well, in a terrible predicament. I signed on the line adjacent to my old signature and the contract flew out of my hands to Poseidon. "Well, now that you have signed, I suppose you want me to remove this here rock, am I right?" I nodded, picking up my helmet. "You're going to want that helmet on then." Poseidon continued. I quickly pulled the helmet over my head and the sea rushed back in.

He moved over to the rock and took out his trident, The Trident. The lake-water around it crackled with power and boiled. Poseidon touched the tip to the boulder's side. Cracks sprouted from where the trident touched, lining the whole boulder. The cracks glowed with energy and he waved his hand over it, which promptly caused the boulder to explode, pieces flying everywhere and currents washing over me.

When the silt settled, a large opening was left in the rock wall, leading upwards along the slope of the lake. Poseidon was nowhere to be seen, but I prayed thanks anyway. I swam to the hole, ignoring the shapes, probably Annabeth and Leo, coming to investigate the explosion in the lake. Thanks to the light on the helmet, the water wasn't completely pitching black.

I broke the surface as I pulled off my helmet. I instinctively threw my arm out to my right to grab the lamp I usually kept in here. And amazingly, it was still there. I pulled myself onto the rocky ledge, trying to remember the cave correctly, even without the one hundred and thirty years; I still haven't been in here for at least five years.

I tried the now ancient lamp, which successfully lit up. I held it out in front of me as I walked deeper into the cave.


	5. Is This Normal?

~5~

The walls of the cave were covered in moss, multiple stalactites slowly dripped water down to the floor. My lamp cast shadows around the cave as I stepped into a larger part. I sat down there, and waited.

Leo came running through the cave, a small fire burning in his hands, Annabeth was right behind him. "I'm amazed Percy never found something like this." Annabeth said, obviously amazed. She looked at me, leaving Leo looking at a large ore vein. "How did you move, well more like blew up, the rock at the entrance?" I tossed her Poseidon's pen, a fountain pen with a trident on it. She studied it before handing it back. "You somehow got Poseidon's help?" She crossed her arms, expecting an answer. I stood up, picking up my lamp. "He owed me for protecting his son." She raised an eyebrow, but grabbed Leo away from the vein.

"Oh come on Annabeth, most silver deposits are small! That silver vein can pay for a lot in camp!' He pushed her hand off his shoulder. "Like better restrooms." I shook my head, holding the lamp up to a large arch in the stone. "Ok, after this arch is the room, I believe." I stepped under the arch into a large moss covered room. I could feel the moss in this room, very feeble dryads, calling out to the light me and Leo carried. "The moss could make finding the door very difficult." Annabeth said. She walked further into the room studying the walls. "Can you ask the moss?" I shook my head. "Moss dryads might as well be babies; you can't really communicate with them." Leo made the fire in his hands grow. "I could burn the moss away, if you don't mind of course." I sighed. Why did people always think that killing plants was normal? But he did have a point. I motioned for him to try. "I will make it very concentrated, so we can see right under the moss without doing too much damage." He lifted his arm, palm out, where a small inferno roared. I closed my eyes and covered my ears.

I watched as the fire shot out like a dagger into the moss, and my hands, obviously, could not hold out the moss dryad's screams. I sat down, trying to drown the moss out, unsuccessfully. Annabeth sat down next to me. "Why exactly are you able to communicate with dryads? I didn't know Demeter had the ability to let her children do that." I pulled my hands away from my ears and looked at her. "Since she helped man domesticate the lower forms of dryad, like wheat and all that, she has to make tribute to them once every a few hundred years." I squinted as Leo began turning to other moss clusters. "She gives them one of her children to protect them, and in order to protect them the child has to be able to communicate with them. So here I am."

I covered my ears again. "Of course, they don't expect the child to be able to save every single plant, so they generally don't care about the extremely lower ones. It's like children of Athena, they don't know everything." I stood up and walked out of the chamber, Annabeth followed. "And the fact that you can control them?" She asked. I shrugged. "Only if they let me, which they generally do. Tell me when Leo finds the door." She nodded and began walking back to Leo. Suddenly his voice rang out. "Found it!"

Annabeth and I ran back into the room, where Leo was studying a wooden door set into the cave wall. "It looks pretty old; I suppose it could be ancient." He looked up to me and Annabeth with a smirk on his face. "That would make you ancient too Ethan."

"Heh." I shook my head and checked the door. It looked just like it did the first time I found it. Annabeth ran her hand along the surface. "You didn't even scorch it, you were being careful." She nodded admiringly. He gave her a confused look. "Not scorched even a tiny bit? I was using a lot of fire on it." She shrugged. "If it's what I think it is, then you could turn the room into an inferno and it would be fine."

She grabbed the doorknob, an ornate brass orb. "You said there was never anything behind it when you opened it?" She asked me. "Just the wall." She slowly turned the doorknob, probably just in case it was fragile, and pulled.

It slid open rather slowly, rust falling from its hinges. A warm, musty breeze blew from the old door, putting Leo's fire out. "Wha- hey!" he exclaimed. He frantically fell back onto his rear. I turned the valve and igniter on my lamp, the spark igniting the gas. The light illuminated a long tunnel behind the door, the sound of water flowing echoed through the dark.

"Just as I thought, a side passage into the tunnel of Eupalinos." She leaned in, studying the walls. "It was an aqueduct built sometime in the 6th century, by the tyrant Polycrates. This was before year Zero, one of the youngest ancient wonders." She stood up, closing the door. "Apparently it moved into the US with the gods."

I stood up, pulling Leo up with me. "We should tell Chiron, this could be the ancient tunnel in my prophesy. She and Leo both nodded. Leo lit another fire in his palm and looked at a band on his wrist. "Well it's almost lunch. We should hurry, I'm starving!" With that we jumped back into the water and swam, uneventfully, to the surface. Well except for Leo trying to hit on Naiads.

We surfaced and headed to the forge without speaking, Leo even seemed tired. We half jogged half walked back up to the forge, which was empty, and took off the wetsuits, Leo went in back and changed out of the shorts. Annabeth folded up her wetsuit with mine and stuck them in a locker. "The last time I was down there was with Percy. I won't be at dinner." She left without talking after that, leaving me and Leo in uncomfortable silence.

"If you didn't already know, her boyfriend Percy went missing a few months ago, he just disappeared." Leo gestured around him to emphasize his point. "When Jason, Piper and I arrived, well a little after that, we figured out that Percy was at the Roman camp."

I nodded. "How did you figure that out?" I asked. He shrugged. "I didn't."

He buckled a tool belt around his waist and marched out. "Well, see you at lunch."

I turned to the window and looked out. Leo was a lot like Corey; restless, idiotic, and honestly he was a genius. That and the fire. I took my jacket and hat from the locker and walked out, switching off the lights. "So, you had a dream about me?"

I jumped, dropping my hat. Leaning against the wall was that girl that I had seen in my dream, and saved this morning. She was in an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and had a dark green hat on. Her red hair was pulled through the back of the hat into a ponytail.

"Well demigods have weird dreams." I picked up my hat then stopped. I need to work on my wording. "Not that you are weird or anything." She shrugged. "I am." She crossed her arms, stepping in front of me. "And demigod dreams are weird; I have been having dreams for weeks, Always about my mother, Athena." She sighed.

"Chiron said that you think I'm supposed to be on your quest?" I nodded. I raised an eyebrow. "How long have you known? About your mother." She pulled out a small coin. "Well, since my dad told me. So about three years now." She glanced at me. "Why?"

I stared walking up to the other cabins at lunch, motioning for her to follow. She did. "I figured that you wouldn't know until you got here, it is surprising that you know."

She looked at me. "You don't use many contractions do you?" I smirked. "We did not use those much 'back then'."

She turned her head away, at the ground. "I have been on my own since my last birthday. I had to leave, or the monsters would get my family." She breathed heavily. "Again." I knit my eyebrows and stayed silent.

We got to the pavilion and she went to her table, I went to the Demeter table and sat next to Dew. Chiron called for the campers to give their offerings to the gods, we all stood up and gave a portion of our food to the fire. I glanced over at the Zeus table, Jason and Anima sat at the table. Jason was explain something to Anima, and she looked extremely confused.

Probably learning about the hundred and some years of history that happened.

The Artimis table was full; Thalia and Mary were next to each other, talking up a storm. Their whole table was.

Chiron slammed his hoof on the cobble floor, getting everyone's attention. "As you might have noticed this morning, we have a new camper." He waved his hand at the red haired Athenian girl. "Izabella Zientek, a daughter of Athena. Please make her welcome here." There was polite clapping all around, except from Dew who had his pad of paper out and was writing fast.

"Tonight there will be no campfire; instead we will be having a game of capture the flag with the hunters, as is normal whenever they visit." There were a few groans around the pavilion, and a cheer from the Artimis table. "Meet outside the forge after dinner and be prepared." He stepped back and the tables went into an uproar again.

Marinda leaned into our table and everyone else did the same. "Ok, so me and the other cabin leaders knew this was coming, so we already have a plan." She whispered. "WE will be on the defense, except for Ethan and myself. We will be with Annabeth, Jason and Leo. Be sure to stay spread out." We all nodded. Marinda turned to me. "After dinner meet up with us inside the forge, we have a secret that we might actually be able to use to our advantage." I nodded, a grin on my face.

I never actually did anything like this when I was at camp, because of the wars and all, but I had a good idea of what they would want me to do.

We went back to eating, a new vibe in the air.

The air in the forge was fresh and warm. Jason, Leo, Marinda, Annabeth and myself were standing around the large anvil, too big really, discussing the plan.

"Me, Leo and Marinda are going to charge up their right side, catch them off guard." Annabeth said, pointing at her laptop screen. "Jason, you will charge up the middle, after the Ares, Hephaestus and Apollo cabins respectively. We will lead the charge with the Hecate and Nike cabins." She turned to me.

"Ethan, you will run through the western side of the forest. Get their flag and get out." She grinned. "I saw how fast you ran to your sister last night, this should be a piece of cake for you."

I nodded, grinning. "Of course." She nodded and rolled up the map of the woods. "Leo, go get the cabins we lead. Same with you Jason." We all stepped out of the forge, the cold autumn night sent a chill up my spine. "Just a few days ago, well to you and me, it was a hot, sweaty summer day."

I turned to Anima who was standing to my right. She had her armor off and was wearing a purple shirt and faded jeans. Her practically white hair was put in a bun, the curls sticking out everywhere. "After learning about what has happened to the Roman people in this country." She scowled. "I wish that I had been there to lead them away from any danger."

"I just wish I could remember _Anything._"

I raised an eyebrow. "You lost your memory as well?"

She started to respond but Chiron blew a conch horn, signaling both sides into silence. "As some of you know, any time The Hunters visit we have a capture the flag game to celebrate!" There were low voices, some cursing and some cheers, but Chiron silenced them.

"As you know; there is no maiming, or binding the hands of the captured." He glanced at the Ares cabin, who grumbled in agreement. Chiron continued "Magic items are allowed, however, no stink arrows or Greek fire." The Hunters and Hephaestus cabin started to protest but, once again, Chiron silenced them.

"Cabins! Hunters! Get to your respective base camps, be ready!"

I turned back to Anima to ask her why she didn't tell anyone, but she wasn't there. Instead of her Leo was there holding an odd bronze chest plate. He smiled triumphantly. "Made this myself; Celestial Bronze chainmail!" He held them out, I took it. "It slides over your head."

The chainmail was pretty light, and it fit over my jacket, which suited me fine. It was pretty cold out. The separate links fell together with barely any noise, the movement as great too. Leo looked at me expectantly.

"This is some high quality chainmail here, Leo." He grinned triumphantly and pulled out a small bronze disk from his pocket. "You left this in the forge, along with this." He handed me both the disk, my shield, and my messenger bag. He fumbled with his chinstrap, his blue helmet plume sticking up, burnt in some places. "I kinda fiddled with your shield, improved spin-out speed and more structure." He pulled on his gauntlet, tightening them. "Among things."

I pressed the button on the top of the disk, my familiar shield, engraved with the eternal roots of a tree, spun out as fast as lightning. I strapped it to my arm, testing the weight, which wasn't much more than it had before. I nodded. "This is better, Corey would have your head for re-designing his shield, but still even he would approve the improvements."

He smiled. "This Corey guy, you said he was a fire user?" I shook my head. "That would be Derek York." He nodded, fiddling with some springs and other bits of junk in his hands. "He signed the paper in your messenger bag." He said somewhat quietly. I knit my eyebrows. He quickly spoke.

"I didn't read it; I figured it might be personal." He scratched his arm. "I don't but into other people's lives that much." I opened my bag, and sure enough there was a small scroll with the name Corey Viness written in quick handwriting. Leo looked around. "We better get going to the base camp. I can be late but you can't." I nodded and closed my bag. I would read it later.

I leapt over another root, listening intently. They could be anywhere, if I remembered correctly they were hunters, silent as a dark night near the Mississippi. I had pulled my chainmail under my jacket, to make myself look like more of a target, if it came down to that.

I ducked under a fallen tree, hopping down a small cliff. It really wasn't much for me, there was a large group of rose bushes who would not hurt me. I pulled myself out of the bush, surveying my surroundings.

Even if I had been gone for a long time, I could still feel the way through the forest. I stood up straight, leaning over a small sapling. "Have you seen a red flag around here?" It took a moment for a response, and it can't really be translated. But it basically said "that way" and "pointed". I thanked it and climbed out of the pit, up into a few trees. I could still hear the two sides fighting, near the stream.

I hopped tree to tree until I heard a noise; A bowstring being pulled back. I quickly jumped out of the tree, ducking into a ball. Three arrows bounced off of the rock behind me, blunted of course.

I started sprinting in the direction the arrows came from, my shield spiraling out. Five of six more arrows hit the shield, and one hit the ground near my feet, but I got to the one shooting the arrows.

They had been behind a bush, so I simply asked it to move. It, of course, complied. The huntress jumped back, stepping up to a small clearing. She let loose an arrow, I knocked it away with my shield. I slammed into her, shield first; she fell backwards knocked flat out. "Sorry." I said, under my breath.

The flag was in the middle of the clearing, I had come up from behind, three hunters stood on the other side of the clearing, firing into a thick of other warriors. Mostly campers with flashes of grey and silver. I sprinted forward, pulling the flag from the ground. I continued my shield in my left arm, their flag in my right.

I barreled through the three hunters; one turned to face me, but was hit by an Apollo trip arrow. It was Mary, her blonde hair in a tight bun, a look of surprise on her face. I jumped over her and raced into the battle.

I finally saw how good we were doing, which wasn't very good. Most of the campers were on the ground, a few were shaking, a sparking arrow sticking up from their armor. Lightning.

I kept running, straight to the stream. Annabeth told me that getting to the stream would mean us winning, as long as I had the flag anyway. Speaking of her she glanced up from a knife battle, which she was really just stalling. She grinned then pointed at the river, less than 40 feet away.

I looked across and running back at me was Thalia, her spear extended in front of her, shocking campers who got in front of her. She had our banner in her other hand, the blue flag waving behind her. We locked eyes and she sprinted forward faster, I called on the dryads asking for their push. The grass pushed me forward; Thalia and I were just a few feet away from the stream, a deep look of concentration on her face. I'm sure that's what I looked like as well.

We both jumped the stream under both our feet. Her lightning arced to my shield, the magical bronze crackling with electricity. We were close enough to see each other's pupils. Time seemed to slow down, people had stopped fighting, and everyone was watching, waiting. No one looked sure, except Leo who had a crazy smile on his face.

He spear made contact with my shield; the lightning arced around the bronze, stopping at the leather back. Then, I heard a spring whir and a small click.

The front of my shield opened up, a large red fist, made of leather extended on a spring. Thalia blinked and was hit square in the jaw by the leather fist. She fell into the cold stream; eyes wide open, staring at the dark sky. I landed on the other side of the stream, breathing heavily. I stared at Leo who was laughing, practically doubled over.

I stabbed the flag into the ground, people slowly started to move, and were checking to see if we actually won, or if they actually lost.

Chiron galloped in, a smirk on his face. "For the first time in a long time, the Campers get the laurels!" The Campers erupted into a chorus of cheers. I stepped into the stream, where Thalia was still lying. I put my hand out to her, she smirked and took it. I helped her up.

She squeezed some water out of her hair. "I thought that if I was Hunter I would be able to be on the winning side of this annual capture the flag games." She smirked. " I wasn't expecting a boxing glove to come out of your shield though." She picked up her spear and collapsed it into a canister; I did the same with my shield. I laughed a little. "I wasn't expecting it either."

We had a quick laugh over that. "Good game." I turned to Mary who was pulling leaves out of her hair. "I haven't lost to the camp yet. Until now." She grinned. "I think without you, this wouldn't have happened."

She punched my shoulder. "Don't do it again." I grinned. "I think you need to tone it down a little." She laughed and walked off to her fellow hunters, who were grumbling to themselves, Thalia joined them, a quick nod to me.

"That was the "little bit more" that I was talking about. I wasn't sure if you could use it!" I looked at Leo, who was standing on shore, I walked over to him, shaking my boots dry. He continued. "Of course, if you hadn't been fast enough then it would have been pointless!" He wiped an invisible tear from his eye, sheathing his sword. "I should have made it make a funny noise. But all comedies aside, you were great!" He clapped me on the back and kept his arm over my shoulder. "You were going to check the messenger bag?"

I glanced at him. "Why?" He shrugged, unclipping his armor, walking into the crowd of cheering campers. "It peaked my curiosity." I shrugged. "I'll check in the morning." He shrugged. "Before you leave, I have a slight intrest in history, I'm sure Annabeth would love a look." Just then Jason came up next to my, throwing his arm around my shoulder.

"Three cheers for Ethan!" he shouted, the campers cheered and lifter me to their shoulders. Leo laughed and followed behind them. I noticed Anima on the roof of the Zeus cabin, watching. Her eyes gleaming in the dark, a look of understanding in her eyes. And loss.

A terrible loss.


End file.
